When buying a safe, you might notice that manufacturers never make any guarantees that the safes are unbreakable. There is an understanding that given enough time and sufficent tools, all safes can be defeated. Instead companies offer estimates on how long it will take to be cracked.
“Examinable” and “unexaminable” are implied to be disjoint categories but there is in fact a continuum of examinability. The term “fully examinable” was invented to imply that the gimmicks are so good that no spectator would ever be able to figure out the secret. I’ve never really liked the phrase “fully examinable” because I think a sufficently motivated attacker with the right tools will be able to uncover the gimmicks, but I might just be being pedantic.
Nonetheless, I will offer the following definitions. (And proceed to get mad when marketers who likely have never heard of my blog don’t adhere to them.)
- Unexaminable - It will take spectators seconds to discover the secret. (Linking Rings)
- Examinable - The spectator will get need to perform a specific, uncommon action to discover the secret. (Stripper Deck)
- Fully Examinable - The specatator will not be able to find the gimmick without an additional tool. (Chop Cup)
There’s no real way of objectively determining which category thing belong to because of the very broad definitions and the huge diversity of human behavior. I’m sure examinability will continue to be a point of contention every new product release and look forward to pages of internet arguments.